PENSACOLA, FL May 2, 2014 — Over the past week, storms have left a wide swath of damage, devastation and despair from the Great Plains to the Gulf Coast and across the Mid-Atlantic. The Red Cross has been there every day to help. Here in Northwest Florida, many families who sought a dry, safe place when floodwaters rose, went to a Red Cross shelter.

Alaina Reed was awakened by her mother at 3 a.m. who was standing next to her bed in inch-deep water. Reed saw that her first-floor Forrest Creek apartment in Pensacola had rapidly rising murky water. Reed woke up her two children, six year-old Ayden and two year-old Lianna. The Reed family spent the next five hours sitting in the dark on the arms an back of their sofa until the sun came up. Then looking out the windows, Reed saw rescue teams bringing boats to the apartments. “The rescue workers carried the kids and our suitcase to the boats and then we were taken on a bus to the Red Cross shelter,” said Reed.

“The water came fast. And it rose high,” said long-time resident Calvin Grace, holding his hand some 4-feet above the
floor. Fortunately he was able to evacuate without a problem – except for the fact that he lost everything beyond for the
clothes he was wearing.

Another Forrest Creek resident, Jamerius Bush, awoke her family of five to take them to their upstairs neighbor when she discovered water rising in her apartment. When she left to go to a Red Cross shelter, she saw her new furniture that was delivered three days earlier, floating in her apartment.

In the days ahead, the Red Cross will also be working with local community partners to provide additional services to help families get back on their feet and begin to recover.

In just over one month since the earthquake in Haiti, the Red Cross has helped more than 1.3 million people and will continue to aid hundreds of thousands more in the months ahead until the last donated dollar is spent.

The American Red Cross has spent or allocated $80 million of the $284 million donated to meet the most urgent needs of Haiti’s earthquake survivors.

To meet urgent needs, 69 percent of the funds spent or committed by the American Red Cross have been for food and water; 20 percent have been for shelter; and the rest are for health and family services.

Because of the generosity of donors, people in Haiti will receive more than immediate relief — they will receive resources, support and training from the Red Cross that will help them recover and rebuild in the years ahead.

As the response progresses and recovery begins the Red Cross will continue to support these priority areas and longer-term assistance initiatives. The Red Cross will continue to invest the money entrusted to us by the American people in the most responsible way until the last donated dollar is spent.

Water & Sanitation:

The Red Cross has delivered more than 25 million liters of safe drinking water in 110 different settlements since the earthquake. That translates to approximately 1.25 million liters per day – enough for 320,000 people.

To address sanitation needs and prevent the spread of disease, 450 latrines have also been installed.

Health:

More than 20,000 people have been treated by Red Cross health care facilities and mobile teams. That translates to approximately more than 1,000 patients per day. These hospitals and clinics will continue to provide medical services for the community for at least the next five months.

The American Red Cross has also donated more than 900 units of blood for earthquake survivors.

In partnership with the Haitian government and UN agencies, the Red Cross is helping to promote a vaccination campaign in Haiti to protect children against measles and other infectious diseases. So far, nearly 15,000 have been vaccinated. This first phase of the campaign will continue for at least four more weeks and aims to reach 250,000 people.

15 million text messages have been sent to survivors, sharing important health messages, such as how to prevent the spread of disease and safely prepare food outdoors.

Restoring Family Links:

Caseworkers are helping people register at the official family linking Web site, place phone calls to loved ones abroad and find family members scattered throughout different settlements in Port-au-Prince. So far, nearly 33,000 people have been assisted in this way.

The American Red Cross is also supporting Haitian-Americans and others living in the United States who are looking for immediate relatives in Haiti.

Announcement

We will be changing our Disaster Online Newsroom format in the upcoming weeks (we will be rolling everything into a new webpage/format that will be easier to read/search). As part of the transition, we will be doing a weekly update (on Fridays) that will recap what disasters we're responding to across the country. Additionally, we will be posting any time sensitive disaster updates from our chapters. As part of the transition to our new Disaster format, we will not be regularly posting images or stories from the field - you can find those at .